Activity App and Calories

Does the activity app pull weight entries from Health to update the calories burned calculations that it does? If not, where can we update that weight so activity is using good data to estimate calories burned?

Does the activity app pull weight entries from Health to update the calories burned calculations that it does? If not, where can we update that weight so activity is using good data to estimate calories burned?

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Yes, to Part A of your question: Does the AW pull weight from Health. If you go into the watch app on the phone, and then select Health from the list on the main screen, it shows your biometrics from the Health App, including weight.

However, the calorie algorithms are pretty jacked up relative to other calorie counting applications and devices I have seen, so who knows whether it even uses weight and if it does so accurately. I would change it, but I would not necessarily count on greater accuracy in its calories burned estimates.

It's been close enough to my Garmin for me to stop worrying about calorie expenditure.

Have you been tested at a sports lab for a more accurate estimate?

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I have deconstructed the AW data to see that it has errors between BMR and active calories. Furthermore, it is off from every other calculation device I have looked at, including Fitbit, Garmin Edge 520 with and without power, Garmin 910XT (running and cycling with and without power), Kurt Kinetic InRide with power, and multiple treadmills. The Garmins align with the other devices. Garmin licenses the FirstBeat algorithms for calorie estimation, and FirstBeat is highly regarded.

Furthermore, there are a number of other posts from athletes on this forum who have found that the AW does not match their devices, treadmills, and stair climbers.

Furthermore, AW calorie calculations are off from numerous online calorie calculators and published, peer-review studies that have analyzed actual calorie burn in a controlled method.

I think the AW calorie calorie calculation is like a broken watch: if it happens to match another calorie counter, it is probably random luck.

This was just my little rant that I am frustrated with Apple for doing such a crappy job with the fitness and activity aspects of the AW.

Thanks for your response. I was comparing AW's resting calorie burn to online calculators and found Apple's to be around 100 calories more per day(online says 1700 calories burned per day whereas Apple's is 1800).

This seems close enough for me, but I certainly hope it is as accurate as possible and I am always curious as to what other's experience has been.

I was comparing AW's resting calorie burn to online calculators and found Apple's to be around 100 calories more per day(online says 1700 calories burned per day whereas Apple's is 1800).

This seems close enough for me, but I certainly hope it is as accurate as possible and I am always curious as to what other's experience has been.

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Yep, that is directionally correct, and you are not likely to do better. The AW had major errors in BMR calculation at launch, as in 1,000 calories too high for a lot of people, but Apple corrected that with an early OS update. Now, their errors are primarily in the active calorie algorithms and some residual errors that persist from the original BMR errors.

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